Environment & Energy

Judi Lynn

(160,707 posts) Thu Jun 25, 2015, 02:16 PM Jun 2015

'On the Offensive' Against Monsanto, France Removes Roundup from Store Shelves

Published on Monday, June 15, 2015

by Common Dreams

'On the Offensive' Against Monsanto, France Removes Roundup from Store Shelves

Monsanto product will no longer be sold in aisles of nurseries frequented by amateur gardeners

by Nadia Prupis, staff writer

France will cease over-the-counter sales of agrochemical giant Monsanto's weedkiller brand Roundup, following a recent United Nations report that found the active ingredient, glyphosate, was "probably carcinogenic to humans."

It's the newest development in the growing international movement against Monsanto in general and Roundup in particular. French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal announced on Sunday that she had instructed garden centers to stop putting the herbicide on the shelves of their self-service aisles, stating, "France must be on the offensive with regards to the banning of pesticides."

Colombian officials made similar statements in May, when they put a halt to U.S.-backed toxic fumigation of coca fields in the country, noting that a previous ruling by the Colombian Supreme Court called for an end to the aerial spraying program if health concerns over glyphosate were discovered.

They were. As Common Dreams reported in March, the UN's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is based in France, found in its study that:

"Limited evidence" exists to show the herbicide can cause non-Hodgkins lymphoma in humans and additional "convincing evidence" that it can cause other forms of cancer in both rats and mice. Researchers noted that glyphosate has been found in the blood and urine of agricultural workers, showing the chemical has been absorbed by the bodies of those who work most with it.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/15/offensive-against-monsanto-france-removes-roundup-store-shelves

2 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

'On the Offensive' Against Monsanto, France Removes Roundup from Store Shelves (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jun 2015 OP

Good for them. Every time I see a Round-Up commercial wherein a lazy person sprays a couple of djean111 Jun 2015 #1

That reminds me, I have to buy some roundup. happyslug Jun 2015 #2

djean111

(14,255 posts)

1. Good for them. Every time I see a Round-Up commercial wherein a lazy person sprays a couple of

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Thu Jun 25, 2015, 02:19 PM

Jun 2015

weeds in his driveway, when he could have just pulled the damned things up, and then proudly walks away - I want to hurl.

happyslug

(14,779 posts)

2. That reminds me, I have to buy some roundup.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Thu Jun 25, 2015, 09:50 PM

Jun 2015

I go with the 5 gallon 50% Roundup version. Dilute it down to 5% to 7%, it kills Knotweed in about a month (I do NOT mean it takes a month to kill Knotweed, but Knotweed will NOT send any Roundup to its roots till it is flowering and that occurs in my area about mid July).

One of the problems with Knotweed is that you have to use a herbicide to kill it and then only from about mid July to the end of September. If you spray knotweed before it flowers, none of the poison goes to its roots, and thus it comes back, often in the same year.

I once sprayed two group of knotweed that were side by side, one was flowering the other was not. The one that was flowering did NOT come back the next year. The one that had NOT been flowering came back full tilt the following year.

Now, I refuse to spray around people, and I were plastic gloves when handling Roundup. I have tried other herbicide and none of them work.

Now, one alternative is to run cattle. Cows LOVER knotweed, but the area I am spraying refuses to run cattle or even goats. It would take about five to ten years of such grazing for the knotweed to disappear, but it is the only effective alternative.

Reply to this discussion